LBP bags major awards

The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) was recently awarded the "Most Outstanding Underwriter and Selling Agent" for the four-year Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) and the "Number 1 Best Performing Government Securities Eligible Dealer (GSED)" for the primary market.

Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho and National Treasurer Sergio Edeza conferred the awards to LBP president and chief executive officer Gary Teves during the Bureau of Treasury’s 104th anniversary celebration.

It bagged the first award for the initial tranche of the four-year RTBs, besting other underwriters like BPI Capital, Development Bank of the Phils. (DBP), PCI Capital, BDO Capital and First Metro Investment Corp.

As joint lead underwriter and issue manager, LBP sold a total of P7.9 billion for the two tranches.

Of this amount, P7.1 billion was sold by the corporate finance department of institutional investors while P730 million were sold thru the bank’s network of on-line branches.

Teves said the bank’s nationwide network was also instrumental for the successful retail distribution of previous government issues like the five-year SDT Bonds and the Progress Bonds.

The LBP was also cited as the top GSED due to its strong support to the government’s fund-raising efforts thru the primary auction market as well as its aggressive participation in BTr’s weekly auction of government securities.

From third place last year, it moved to the top spot this year followed by Citibank and Hongkong Bank which earned second and third places, respectively.

The LBP was able to earn P4.7 billion in net interest income as well as increase its government securities sales volume to P127 billion, resulting in a trading income of P962 million.